Los Altos, California, May 19, 2016: Afero, the platform for secure connectivity to the Internet of Things (IoT) for both enterprises and the home, announced that it had completed a US $20.3 million Series A financing. The investment is led by Samsung Catalyst Fund, said the company in a statement. The round is also joined by the SoftBank Group, Fenox Venture Capital, Presidio Ventures, Sanshin Electronics Co. Ltd., Robert Dobkin, and Assembly Partners.
“Our technology helps companies rapidly create and deploy connected products by automating the core embedded, mobile, and Cloud development tasks,” said Joe Britt, CEO and co-founder of Afero. “Afero was designed to speed and simplify product development, whether companies choose to modernize a legacy product or create something entirely new.”
To overcome the obstacles stifling the widespread adoption of IoT, the Afero platform delivers:
• IoT Beyond the Home: The Afero platform is built to power both the home and the enterprise IoT market, which is predicted to reach $3 trillion by 2021, more than 3x the size of the consumer IoT market.
• Greenfield and Brownfield Development: With Afero, it’s incredibly easy to make something smart, whether you want to upgrade, connect and modernize a legacy product, or create something entirely new.
• Security Built-In: The Afero platform has layers of security embedded throughout the platform, from application services on your phone to network access control services with built-in authentication to the cloud and back.
• Interoperability: Afero seamlessly connects walled gardens by intelligently assembling all your smart devices, regardless of brand, so they can work together through the secure Afero end-to-end architecture.
Created by veterans from Apple, Amazon, Danger, and Nest, Afero claims to unlocks smart capabilities for any product in virtually any industry. After 18 months in development, Afero went live in December 2015 and announced partnerships with industry leaders Murata, Infocom, and BANDAI NAMCO Studios. Afero serves as the secure foundation for these partners and others to drive IoT innovation and reimagine industries like automotive, retail, manufacturing, consumer electronics, gaming, healthcare, office supply, and more.
“Afero has built an elegant end-to-end platform solution that solves a real problem for companies struggling to set-up, deploy and manage IoT at scale,” said Shankar Chandran, Vice President and Head, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Samsung Electronics. “This investment amplifies our strategy of open innovation and collaboration which fuels innovative startups and enables them to bring their visions to market more effectively.”
Image Credit: Afero